Outer Sunset: Foggy? Yes. Bleak? Nah, that’s just harsh!

The New York Times Travel section has a brief little blurb on the Outer Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco, which happens to feature a store that showcases work from some of our clients. The store is Woodshop – and it is located at 3725 Noriega Street (open by appointment only). It features surfboards from Danny Hess, who is an incredibly talented surfer and surfboard designer.

His wife is an amazing photographer. If you need a custom surfboard or a photographer, you couldn’t hire better. When they bought their house in the Outer Sunset, it was, well, a disaster. But they both have an amazing sense of style, and turned their rundown home into something quite beautiful.

Woodshop, Outer Sunset, San Francisco

But anyway, back to New York Times article about the Outer Sunset. Bleak? I mean, really? It certainly doesn’t have the sunshine or murals of the Inner Mission, and it is a fairly quiet residential neighborhood, but I have to take issue with the description of the neighborhood. I mean, really! When did quiet and foggy become a synonym for bleak? If we are going to paint the Outer Sunset with the “bleak” brush because it is quiet and residential, then we might as well do the same to every suburb in America… Oh wait… back up… Most suburbs in America are bleak… but the Outer Sunset, while gray, foggy, and sleepy, just isn’t!

So hop on the N-Judah or drive out to Ocean Beach and start exploring! Make an appointment at Woodshop, visit Outerlands for a bite to eat, or hit Trouble Coffee for a cup of Joe, and after you discover for yourself that a quiet neighborhood nestled up against the Pacific Ocean isn’t at all that nasty b-word, give us a call and we’ll see if we can’t find you a sweet pad of your own to call home in the neighborhood.

I grew up right on the beach at Judah and La Playa…it was definitely bleak in the 80s and 90s. It irks me that people have now idealized a place’s history when most of what I saw out there growing up was some very very seedy hotels and apartments and the folks who lived in them…surprisingly like folks living in long-term hotels in the Tenderloin. We had several families of always dirty-clothed/half-starved kids in that apartment on the corner where the N turns around. In fact, I can’t wait for this gentrification to get rid of those few run-down hotels that are still there. The only thing to do out there when I was a kid was skate at a run-down ice rink, walk to the zoo, or go to Other Avenues for some granola. Oh and the Surf Theater was cool until it became a church. So those of you who have moved there recently, try to let go of your ire about the use of bleak…it was once very bleak and I am so happy to see it changing!

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